CALGARY — A federal Liberal hasn’t been elected in Calgary since 1968, but you wouldn’t know it by the party leadership candidates beating a path to the city’s door.

On Wednesday, lawyer and former Toronto MP Martha Hall Findlay officially joined the federal leadership race, launching her leadership bid at the Stampede grounds.

Joining a growing list of candidates for the April 2013 leadership vote, Hall Findlay talked about the lessons learned from her first leadership run in 2006, her experience and smarts, and her desire to see the Liberal party have “guts” to do what’s right instead of trying to please everyone.

But Hall Findlay, 53, also spoke the issues of particular concern in Alberta — saying she supports oilsands development and understands the need to access new foreign markets, but said paying scant attention to environmental concerns leads to higher costs in the long run.

“It’s an economic cost to the country to not do things properly environmentally,” Hall Findlay told reporters.

She said if the planners of the stalled TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline through a number of U.S. states had “understood from the beginning that there were sensitive lands that it really ought to route around ... it might have already been approved.”

Likewise, she said, on any conduit to the West Coast — specifically the contentious Northern Gateway pipeline.

Hall Findlay is an executive fellow at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy and previously lived in the city “for a couple of years.” She wants to run again in her old Toronto riding of Willowdale, which she lost in 2011, but said it was important to make her leadership announcement in Calgary.

“The Liberal party has not been truly national for too long,” she said.

Hall Findlay wasn’t the first federal Liberal leadership candidate to appear here and won’t be the last.

The day after Justin Trudeau announced his leadership bid in his riding of Papineau, he held a major rally in Calgary. Trudeau, who is leading the leadership race in early polls, will speak again at a Mount Royal University event next week.

Candidate Alex Burton also made an appearance here last month and will be in Calgary again next week — as will Toronto lawyer Deborah Coyne.

The last Liberal to represent Calgary in the House of Commons was Pat Mahoney, who was elected in Calgary South in 1968. A recent poll from Lethbridge College found the governing federal Conservative party commands support from nearly three of every five decided Alberta voters, while the NDP has about 15 per cent support, and the Liberals have 12 per cent.

But University of Lethbridge political scientist Peter McCormick said Trudeau has started a new fad for Liberals.

“You come out and demonstrate that even here in the desert, I can find some water,” McCormick said.

Neil Mackie, a Liberal supporter and organizer, also noted that a number of important political movements and leaders have had major or direct ties to Calgary — including the Reform party, the Harper Conservatives, Mayor Naheed Nenshi and Premier Alison Redford. He said that political weight combined with the city’s economic clout makes it a must-go destination for any serious contender.

“The centre of gravity is shifting in Canada,” said Mackie, who is helping Coyne with her leadership campaign.

Longtime Calgary Liberal Darryl Raymaker noted that all the leadership candidates must gain support across the country because of the new rules. In next year’s April 14 leadership contest, anyone can cast a ballot if they’re a party member or supporter. “Supporters” don’t even have to pay a membership fee.

Hall Findlay might have another Calgary advantage. Working on Hall Findlay’s campaign is Stephen Carter, the Calgary-based political operative who served as strategist in the successful campaigns of Nenshi and Redford.

But Hall Findlay acknowledged getting any Liberal elected in Calgary, specifically the Calgary Centre byelection later this month, is a “huge challenge.”

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